The majority of mortgage lenders will insist a buyer instructs a solicitor to protect their interests. Finding a solicitor who has extensive conveyancing experience will be a small price to pay in the long run as they will look after your best interests in the transaction.

Who is a conveyancer?

Conveyancing solicitors are generally property solicitors who have specialised in the area The Council for Licensed Conveyancing (CLC) regulates all licensed conveyancers. You will find that there are a number of qualified conveyancing solicitors in most areas.

Searches

Professional competence means that the searches a conveyancing solicitor undertakes are largely decided by his/her expertise, together with the requirements of individual property transactions. A solicitor will begin ‘all usual and necessary searches and enquiries’ once the buyer’s offer has been accepted by the seller. Extra searches may be required when conveyancing leasehold properties, unregistered properties and apartments.

Examples of searches

Common searches for residential and commercial property include:

• Land registry search – this relates to the ownership of freehold buildings and land and of leasehold properties with seven years or more remaining. Land Registry searches provide information about any charges, rights of way, property boundaries, past ownership and house prices
• Local Authority search – protects the buyer from plans that might affect their new property. For example, a supermarket or dual carriageway planned for the vicinity. Moreover, the search can highlight planning proposals for changes to road layouts or alterations to land use
• Environmental search – concerns liabilities associated with polluted land from past industrial use. If a site or property is determined as Statutory Contaminated Land by a Council and the contaminator cannot be identified, the owner could be liable for remediation costs. If a mortgage lender repossesses the property, they may become liable for the clean-up costs in turn
• Mining search – shows if the property lies within an area mined in the past or scheduled to be mined in the future, which could cause subsidence. Depending on the area, searches can be made for coal, clay, limestone or tin mining
• Company search – conducted when buying a property from a company, this will identify any existing mortgages or charges and problems such as potential insolvency procedures or receivership
• Chancel search – to determine whether the property is on land once owned by a local church, where the mediaeval obligation to pay for repairs to the church may still pertain
• Drainage search –a check on the water authority’s records for mains drainage and water supply and whether there is a sewer or main within the boundary of the property, or if there is a private cesspool and septic tank arrangement
• Flood searches – these days it is common to search for flood risk regarding the property

It is best practice that all searches should be no more than six months old on completion.

Costs

Conveyancing solicitors’ costs may vary depending on their experience and expertise as well as the amount of work involved in your transaction. When you are looking for a solicitor there are a range of factors to take into account. The cost of legal advice should be one of the factors you take into account but, once you find a solicitor, make sure that you were influenced by other factors then price as the best price is not always the best option as the quality of the service may not be what you expected.

For example, when it comes to claims involving amputations, the client may well not only be left unable to work, or at least to work in the field they were in prior to the accident. In addition to this, they will also require rehabilitation and training in order to be able to adapt to their physical handicap, as well as requiring modifications to be made to their home in order to accommodate this. A company with specialist experience in personal injury claims of this kind, such as Irwin Mitchell, will help to secure the appropriate financial compensation to help the client adjust and will also look to secure short-term payments to cover the immediate costs of treatment and care that the client needs while the claim is being pursued. The company’s team of lawyers dealing with these cases are members of the Limbloss Legal Panel – giving them both the legal experience and also the sensitivity to be able to help clients who are attempting to secure recompense while still recovering emotionally from the impact of their injury.

If you want to know more about Irwin Mitchell’s offers in the area of serious injury claims, then visit the Irwin Mitchell newcastle page on www.irwinmitchell.com.

It is difficult at the moment to get a clear picture of what’s happening in the residential housing market although most believe that it is still suffering inertia at best. On the one hand, mortgage rates are still very low, on the other, lenders are still not actively lending. Then there are the still highly uncertain economic conditions.

Figures from the Council of mortgage lenders do suggest that lending rose by 12% in May, but this couold simply be because April was a slow month, seasonal factors and an increase in remortgaging. We wouldn’t read too much into any figures at the moment. Just our view.

Competitor analysis, perhaps a nice term for some forms of competitor spying is far from uncommon, but monitoring of staff is not regularly reported although undoubtedly also occurs.

In an unusual case reported on this week, a highly successful entrepreneur, Elena Ambrosiadou, hedge fund owner of a £1.65 billion fund, Ikos asset management is alleged to have engaged extensive covert surveillance on staff.

The employee claiming that surveillance took place and alleged breach of contract in the High Court has obtained judgment in default of defence against Ms Ambrosiadou. As she has not filed a  defence, the allegation remains strictly speaking untested but in legal terms, it is likely that spying on a member of staff to the extent alleged would be likely to be  a breach of the employment relationship and possibly a fundamental breach of contract giving the employee the right to resign and claim unfair constructive dismissal.